Tristan’s Insight
Paracelsus was the last natural healer, revered and loved by the common folk of many places in the late Middle Ages. Outcast and demonized because he did not undergo a traditional academic medical education, instead he wandered about from a young age observing the capacities of wild plants and earth substances via direct spiritual perception. He knew that poison and remedy were the same substance, differentiated only by a matter of dosage, and discerned the correct dose and preparations as if ‘demonically’.
Birthdays
This short reflection is four years old, already. But that season of the year has rolled round once more, and I’ve always liked the way this one turned out…
Mrs. Markey’s Sentient Fiddle – (scene 11)
A Novella in installments, tracing the intermingling autobiographies of a boy and a violin, spanning over a century. The previous episode is right here. To find any episode, look here.
(The protagonist posing with some old friends: a Japanese shakuhachi, A Zimbabwean mbira, and a good ol’ American jaw harp.)
(11) – Becoming Iain’s Favorite, Albany, 1901
A-wo-el’s Lamentation
A re-imagining of the fall of Atlantis blended with the mystical visions of the Genesis patriarchal figure Noah. This scenario takes place about 10,000 – 12,000 years ago, shrouded in myth, and hence a good deal earlier than most Bible scholars (incorrectly, in my view) place the event.
Thirty-Five (Nel Mezzo…)
The opening of Dante’s Inferno reads: ‘Nel mezzo del cammino di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura / che la diritta via era smarrita.’ — which could be poetically rendered in English as: “When I had traversed midway on this life’s trail, I woke to myself alone within a shadowed wilderness, for I had lost the right and proper path that never strays.”
Mrs. Markey’s Sentient Fiddle – (scene 10)
A Novella in installments, tracing the intermingling autobiographies of a boy and a violin, spanning over a century. The previous episode is right here. To find any episode, look here.
(The protagonist posing with some old friends: a Japanese shakuhachi, A Zimbabwean mbira, and a good ol’ American jaw harp.)
(10) – His Huge Nostrils Flared Wide With Menace, NJ, 1962
Mid-Summit
Mrs. Markey’s Sentient Fiddle – (scene 9)
A Novella in installments, tracing the intermingling autobiographies of a boy and a violin, spanning over a century. The previous episode is right here. To find any episode, look here.
(The protagonist posing with some old friends: a Japanese shakuhachi, A Zimbabwean mbira, and a good ol’ American jaw harp.)
(9) – Humans Need To Practice!, Albany, 1898
Meditation Upon Chalk
(This is a slight re-edit of one of the very first WP posts ever made on this blog about ten years ago, when I was transitioning from software-oriented technical writing to more creative things. The exercise exemplified is still of value, it seems to me)… There is a subtle distancing effect which our numerous online devices and other technologies foist upon our minds regarding the world of everyday objects. Left unchecked, we develop a disregard and disinterest in things and their nature, reflected in the disposable stance many ‘movers and shakers’ adopt towards articles of utility. But imagine if the surrounding world of objects could be reunited with their rightful depths of significance, qualities, and history! Suppose you had to think ONLY about a piece of chalk, to take a mundane example, for ten full minutes. How difficult would it be, and what could be recovered?
||skirmishes|| ||with|| ||reality|| 